"Safety Over Speed" Government's COVID-19 Vaccine Policy

COVID-19 Central Disease Control Headquarters Regular Briefing
Kwon Jun-wook: "Vaccine Development Is Not a 100m Race"

A citizen who volunteered for the Phase 3 clinical trial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine was administered the vaccine being developed by Moderna on the 27th (local time) in Binghamton, New York. Moderna's Phase 3 trial is currently the world's largest COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial, conducted with 30,000 healthy participants across 89 cities in the United States.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] As the government supports or secures the development of vaccines that can prevent the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it has clearly stated that "safety is the top priority." This is due to concerns that side effects might be overlooked amid the speed race led by some countries and global pharmaceutical companies.

On the 30th briefing, Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disease Control Headquarters, said, "The whole world is fiercely competing to secure vaccines through development and advance purchase," adding, "However, vaccines must be developed with safety as the top priority and proceed cautiously." Deputy Director Kwon concurrently serves as the Director of the National Institute of Health and is in charge of the domestic vaccine development control tower. He is also the chief representative of our government in negotiations related to the global vaccine supply mechanism, the COVAX Facility.

He stated, "Vaccine development and procurement is not just a 100-meter sprint where speed is everything; the more urgent it is, the more we must consider safety," and added, "Experts and quarantine authorities will prepare to ensure that vaccines, which are sufficiently verified and perfectly safe based on evidence and public trust, can be administered."

Kwon Jun-wook, Deputy Director of the Central Disease Control Headquarters (Director of the National Institute of Health)

According to the World Health Organization, about 20 vaccine-related clinical trials are currently underway worldwide. Competition is fierce, with institutions such as the University of Oxford in the UK, American pharmaceutical company Moderna, and Chinese company Sinovac just entering Phase 3 clinical trials. The U.S. government has named its vaccine development project "Operation Warp Speed." While it is true that the development speed is fast due to selecting candidate substances through various platforms and simultaneous efforts, experts point out that vaccines must be approached cautiously since they are administered to healthy, uninfected individuals rather than patients. Typically, Phase 3 clinical trials, which involve large-scale testing, take 1 to 2 years to closely examine efficacy and side effects.

Deputy Director Kwon said, "Depending on at least four vaccine platforms, questions such as the level of protection each vaccine provides upon administration, how long it lasts, and if it does not last, how much additional vaccination is needed, remain research and analysis tasks at this time."

He also added, "Since vaccines are administered to healthy people, if safety is guaranteed after development is completed, it is highly likely that they will proceed through institutional procedures such as temporary preventive vaccinations under the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, making safety one of the biggest challenges," and "Observing the administration of developed vaccines in other countries or regions could be considered as one of the alternatives."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.